Probably a great many of us can remember those wild FEVER DREAMS from childhood, where the ceiling seems to begin crashing down upon us, where we are suddenly transported from the cocoon of our sweat-soaked sheets onto a potent journey of consciousness. Or, maybe this happened to you last week? This, my friends, is the rich and delicious terrain of FEVER DREAMS: a soundscape where the walls melt, the portals are flung open, and the soul takes up its ancient call of wind-riding. Steve Roach has done it again, this time with the aid of fellow soundworlds brethren Byron Metcalf (on drums) and Patrick O'Hearn (on bass). FEVER DREAMS is the first in a series of recordings that will be kicked out this year. This first one is a superb blending of ancient and future, with vast electronic soundscapes, complex loops, boiling rhythms, aided by prehistoric cave-dwelling echoes, all of which collide to carry any avid psychonaut (explorer of consciousness) deeper and deeper into limitless inner space. Catch the fever!

Within the opening moments of FEVER DREAMS' first track, "Wicked Dream" featuring Patrick O'Hearn on bass, it is clear that a new chapter is opening on Steve Roach's long and winding pursuit of potent soundworlds far off the traveled path. The music's foundation is built upon long mid-tempo hybrid grooves with strong bass elements created from a combination of acoustic and electronic means. Steve Roach's atmospheric and loop-spun melodic guitar textures rise and fall, intermix with his synth and computer alchemy to create an aura of complex emotional import. The overall feeling of FEVER DREAMS is one shrouded in an exotic amber-colored light filtering through an overgrown mental landscape of last night's lingering FEVER DREAMS; the sensual atmosphere is especially present on the 30 minute track "Tantra Mantra" featuring percussionist Byron Metcalf. This release of floating, hypnotic groove meditations sets the course on a new direction presented over the three interconnected "Fever releases" planned throughout 2004.